GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — It's hard to forget the images from late last week: the home of an elderly couple, up in smoke, and the two of them sitting on the porch, wrapped in blankets from the Red Cross.
The house on Alamance Church Road is a total loss, and burned just one day after Frank and Emma McCraw buried their son, and two months after they buried their daughter.
In the midst of lingering loss and heartbreak - a small glimmer of hope: people from all across the Triad and beyond, banded together and raised tens of thousands of dollars to help them.
It's been a couple of days since the fire. Frank and Emma McCraw are getting by as best they can - warm and dry, inside a mission home at the Pleasant Garden Baptist Church.
"It's a nice place to stay at, but it's not like home," Frank said Tuesday night.
He knows the couple is unable to return to that house. Firefighters determined a woodburning stove caused the Friday morning fire, which gutted most of the house.
"I hate to see it go but it's a total loss," said Frank.
He says he hopes to get the pictures and sentimental things that can be saved out of the house before it is torn down. Mainly - pictures of his son and daughter who passed away.
"I love both my youngins, Jerry and Frances both," he said, "But I can't get them back."
In their time of need, many were compelled to help.
"It is absolutely amazing," said Pastor Robert Hefner, of the Pleasant Garden Baptist Church, "The best that I can tell, between the GoFundMe page and the resources that have come to our church directly, they’re in excess of $20,000 that’s come in on their behalf."
Hefner says the phone calls from people hoping to donate or help haven't stopped coming into the church office since Sunday.
"This is a perfect illustration of the grace of God demonstrated for a couple and a family," he said, "The difficulties aren’t going to go away. There’s no way for me to even begin to comprehend what they’ve been through the last three to four months. But I am watching, and both of them, [and they have] a gratefulness for the generosity of people and the way God is showing his love for them."
Frank McCraw says the plan is to purchase a secondhand mobile home and put it on the property.
Volunteers will help the couple salvage what they can from the house before it is torn down.